Is forgiveness important because it’s therapeutic?
Here’s where I part ways with a great deal of the popular literature on the subject: I think there are conditions that must be met if forgiveness, in the true sense of the term, is to come off. Simply putting aside your anger, or going through therapy and putting it aside, or taking a pill and moving on is not forgiveness. As in, let’s have a drink together. Let’s have a drink, kiss, and make up. That’s therapy; that’s a kind of reconciliation for the moment. It might be good — I’m not against it — but it’s not forgiveness. Are some things unforgivable? Can we forgive Hitler? Those are two separate questions. I argue against the idea that anybody is in principle and forever, no matter what, unforgivable. However, I do think that in some cases, at a given time, it is humanly impossible to forgive because of the extreme of wrong that was done. But it is the case that people who’ve done terrible things have eventually been forgiven by their victims. Furthermore, in the political sphere, p
